SC - Introduction

[Christine A Seelye-King]

Let me mention two additional titles, that might be pertinent to the
(pre-)history of marmalade. They show, that these preparations could be
both medical and culinary:
- -- Liliane Plouvier: Le letuaire, une confiture du Bas Moyen Age. In:
Lambert, C. (éd): Du manuscrit à la table. Montréal/ Paris 1992,
243-256.
- -- Walther Ryff (Gualtherus Ryffius): Confect Buechlin/ vnd Hauß
Apoteck. (...) Frankfurt a.M. 1544. Reprint Leipzig/ München 1983. (on
quinces see fol. 22b_ss.; fol. 72a_ss.; fol. 104b_ss.).

Some of the German "Latwergen" described by Ryff might also belong to
the _antecedents_ of marmelade. Ryff has several recipes with vinegar,
honey and spices (fol. 22b-26a). According to Ryff, he is relying on
ancient recipes ("... haben die alten genommen ..."). Thus, we must be
prepared to find (versions of) ancient recipes in early modern recipe
collections.

Akim Yaroslavich wrote:
<<< Indeed they descended from the 'cidonitum' of Palladius circa 4th c.
>>>

Do you mean the two recipes for "cydonites" in Palladius lib. 11.20 (ed.
Rodgers p. 213), or is there yet another passage pertinent to the
history of marmalade?

Regarding Palladius 11.20, I wonder what the honey, Palladius mentions,
was like: "dehinc in melle decoques, donec ad mensuram mediam
reuertatur"? Does that mean
- -- (a) that one has to boil the pieces of quinces until they are half of
their original size or
- -- (b) does that mean that the whole fluid must boil down to half of its
original measure?
Columella, in a recipe for the preservation of quinces, says that one
should fill the vessel with the quinces "optimo et liquidissimo melle"
'with the best and the most liquid honey'.

<<< Of course, by then, sugar had largely replaced honey as the
sweetener of choice. >>>

The main function of the honey seems to be preservative. Columella says
in the passage about the preserving of quinces: "nam ea mellis est
natura, ut coerceat vitia nec serpere ea patiatur. qua ex causa etiam
exanimum corpus hominis per annos plurimos innoxium conservat" (Col.
XII, 47.4). Roughly: 'It is the nature of the honey to stop defects and
not to allow that the defects develop any further. This is the reason
why honey conserves even a dead human body for several years without
defect'.

Good luck for the "Glaedenfeld Centre for Medieval and Renaissance
Studies". Let us know how the "research Library and Archival center"
develops.

Cheers,
Thomas

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